


The Crying Corner

by Arabesqueangel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Feels, Gen, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:34:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24628621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arabesqueangel/pseuds/Arabesqueangel
Summary: Remus Lupin breathed in and out, pushing down the anxiety that was threatening to claw up his throat. Just a few more feet, a few more minutes and he would be safe in his own little corner of the library. Then he could let out the tears that were choking him.Unfortunately, someone is already there
Relationships: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	The Crying Corner

**Author's Note:**

> My first non-Marvel fic! It's a wee little thing as this is a character challenge to do in the minimum number of words. 
> 
> The prompt was "X explaining that they don't have friends" and the character I was given was Sirius Black. I hope you enjoy!

Remus Lupin breathed in and out, pushing down the anxiety that was threatening to claw up his throat. Just a few more feet, a few more minutes and he would be safe in his own little corner of the library. Then he could let out the tears that were choking him. He had been so relieved to find this quiet, untouched portion of the library just a few weeks into his time at Hogwarts. He didn’t dare cry in the boy’s dorm. Peter had done that their second night, crying from homesickness once the excitement of the sorting had passed. The other boys had laughed, claiming he had been mis-sorted. What Gryffindor would cry just because he left home?

Of course, that wasn’t why Remus was crying. No, Hogwarts was a dream compared to a home where he was constantly the hippogriff in the room. Sometimes, though, it was all so overwhelming living in the castle. There were so many people. Loud noises filled his ears at all times; scents overtook his nose until he wanted to claw it off; people passed too closely, brushing by skin not used to the feeling. It all got to be so much that at least once a week, Remus had to escape to this quiet corner and cry it all out. 

Remus was close, tears were already allowing themselves to pool in his eyes, when a hitching breath startled him just before he turned the corner. Someone else was in his spot! More, someone else was  _ crying _ in his spot. Instead of continuing around the corner, Remus peaked through a large enough gap in the books on the shelf. Sitting there on the ground, rubbing his eyes mournfully was perhaps the last person Remus might have expected, Sirius Black. Sirius was in his year, a Gryffindor despite the fact that he was a Black, a notoriously Slytherin family. He had said that he was disowned the day his parents found out that he had sorted Gryffindor, but everyone figured that had to be a joke. He was too happy, too carefree; he was always smiling and making stupid jokes, in class or otherwise. He couldn’t possibly manage that if his whole life, his whole family had been in shambles, right? Then again, no one would have guessed what Remus was hiding either. There was also the fact that Sirius hadn’t gone home for Christmas hols. That could have been a commitment to the joke; Remus wouldn’t put it past him. 

“Who’s there? Come out or I’ll hex your nose off!” Sirius demanded suddenly. Remus must have made some sort of noise. 

“How will you hex my nose off if you can’t see me?” Remus asked automatically. Sirius wasn’t the only one with a smart mouth, Remus just generally knew when to keep it shut. Not today; his surprise and anxiety had overridden that logic, apparently. 

“Lupin?” Sirius asked.

Remus had been caught out, so he continued forward to stand awkwardly over Sirius. 

“Why were you spying on me?” Sirius accused, wand already out. His eyes were free of tears, but they were red and his cheeks were stained with them. He sniffled a bit, and Remus realized he had probably been crying for some time. 

“I wasn’t spying on you,” Remus contested automatically.

“Then why were you here?” Sirius looked up at the books right above him. “You studying up on Witch’s rights throughout the ages?”

“It’s an important subject. Just because we’ve come a long way doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for improvement.”

Sirius cocked his head at Remus, reminding him a bit of a shaggy dog with his mop of black hair. It was nowhere near as unkempt as James Potter’s, but it was much longer. “Wait, is that really why you are here?”

Remus laughed. “No.”

Sirius just looked at him expectantly, waiting for the actual answer. Remus debated it for a moment. The boy couldn’t in good conscience tease Lupin for wanting to cry, when he had been here doing that exact thing. However, a fair number of Sirius’s jokes and pranks were at others’ expense. While no one would believe Remus if he went around saying Sirius had been crying in a corner. Remus had no doubt they would believe Sirius if he said the same. The whole point of this corner was so that he could cry in peace without getting any unwanted attention. Still, despite his anxiousness at being around so many people, Remus was lonely. He had hoped that being at Hogwarts, with people his own age, with nobody knowing what he was, that he might be able to make some friends. His shyness and anxiety had mostly gotten in the way, though. Maybe this was his chance. One on one, maybe he could actually make a friend. Remus looked again at Sirius’s face. Though it was darkening with Remus’s lack of answer, he didn’t believe that the boy was all bad. He was just loud and attention-seeking. He was maybe not the friend that Remus had envisioned making, but it could still work. 

“You stole my crying spot,” Remus said finally. 

Sirius’s eyes widened in surprise before he blushed, actually blushed! Sirius, the boy who had asked Marcy Jones for a kiss under the mistletoe without a hint of nervousness and she was the prettiest girl in third year,  _ two _ whole years older than them, had blushed. Nope, no one would believe this conversation had ever happened. 

“Sorry,” Sirius mumbled finally, looking down at his knees. 

Remus took a chance and sat down on the floor beside him. “It’s ok. You want to talk about it?”

Sirius looked at Remus side-eyed before saying, “you first.”

Remus debated putting it back on the other boy, but he was a Gryffindor afterall. 

“I’m mostly used to being alone. I don’t really have any friends at home, never had, and my parents…” Remus trailed off, wondering how to explain around the issue.

“Hey, I know all about shit parents,” Sirius interrupted instead. 

Remus wanted to contradict him. They weren’t bad people. They weren’t cruel or even neglectful, they just didn’t know what to do with him. Then Sirius grinned at him like he had found a kindred spirit and Remus couldn’t bring himself to deprive the boy of that. So, he just shrugged and continued.

“More than that, I just get overwhelmed by all the people here. I’m surrounded by people constantly and yet I feel-”

“Alone,” Sirius finished for him. 

Remus gaped at Sirius “You too?”

“I don’t have any friends,” Sirius confessed, blushing again 

Remus opened his mouth to counter that. Sirius was the loudest, most outgoing person that Remus knew, but then he thought about it. Sirius was always talking, always making people laugh, but he wasn’t really close with anyone. He was kind of like Remus in that way. He got along with most everyone, like the boys in their year, but there was no specific seat at the meal table, no study partners, nothing more than the tangential and the casual. 

“It’s different than you, practically the opposite really. I grew up with a huge family. I mean, I only have the one brother, but there've always been cousins and second cousins and beyond around. I’m used to having people around me, people who want to be around me. Then I get placed in Gryffindor and suddenly I don’t have a family anymore.” Sirius sighed, then perhaps realised that it sounded like he didn’t  _ want _ to be in Gryffindor and backpedaled. “Don’t get me wrong, I love being a Gryffindor and there’s a lot about my family and their narrow-minded, pure-blood ways that I can’t stand, but I can’t help but miss other things.”

They sat in mostly comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Remus worked up the courage to talk. 

“You know there’s an easy solution here.”

“I’m listening.”

“We could be friends. Then you would be happier, and I could have my crying corner back,” Remus grinned wryly, hoping that kept him from looking too pathetic.

“Or,” Sirius added, smiling as well, “if we’re friends, I can help shield you from the teeming Hogwarts masses and maybe you won't need this corner so much.”

Remus blinked at Sirius for a few minutes, hoping that the other boy chalked it up to surprise rather than him fighting tears. That was, well, it was everything Remus could have hoped. It felt almost too good to be true. Sirius stood up and, for a moment, Remus thought he had been quiet too long and now the opportunity had passed him by, but Sirius held out his hand to help Remus up too. 

“What do you say?” Sirius asked.

“I think you have your work cut out for you, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Hey, I may not be the best student, but I can rise to a challenge when I actually try.”

Remus snorted, but the boys started walking out of the library together, they had Transfiguration starting soon anyways. They were just about out of the library when Sirius spoke up again.

“Are you finally going to laugh at my jokes now?”

“Are you finally going to tell a funny one?” Remus asked slyly.

Sirius laughed. “Tough crowd. I’ll make you laugh one of these days.”

“Of course you will, we’re friends after all.”


End file.
